The Battle of Ridgefield 1777 : AWI

Our journey through the AWI resumes in April 1777 with the small battle of Ridgefield. Surprisingly for a fairly small engagement there is quite a bit of information on the internet about the series of skirmishes which took place in or close to Ridgefield in Connecticut on the 27th April. In part I think as the town appears to have a very active Historical Society. In short the British under General Tryon landed troops on the coast of Fairfield County. Having marched inland and torched part of the Town of  Danbury to destroy rebels supplies stored there. The Rebels under General Wooster and Benedict Arnold looked to ambush the British on their march back south. Several small indecisive skirmishes took place on the road back south. These culminated at Ridgefield where the Americans had blocked the road.

Map of the overall raid into Connecticut 

The Rebels prepare to defend Ridgefield

Some of the history of the battle has been preserved in the town and a museum still displays one of the British cannon balls fired during the fight in the wall of the building.

Given the size of the engagement a useful map of the situation. 

Obviously I had to scale this down to something we could run as a game. Above the main elements of Ridgefield, the British would be attacking from this end. The roadblock , waiting to be outflanked on Main Street.

I thought we would try a slightly different scenario to the usual frontal assault. So the British represented by three regiments the 23rd, 27th and 64th Foot and supported by artillery will try to capture the town. The Americans who must setup on the line of the barricade must attempt to escape the table. The British will gain points for each sector of the town captured, the Americans for each British unit killed or for each American unit off the table after 10 turns. The table is 5 x4 feet, points wise using Rebels and Patriots the British have 54 points the Americans 30. The 2 British cannons only have a range of 36” so will become ineffective at long range. So onto the action 🙂

The British at their start point

And the rebels manning the barricade 

The American forces are a mix of regulars and irregular with skirmishers, some have been placed right at the each of town to delay the British advance

The rest are massed along the line of the barricade

As soon as the broths start their advance the Americans open up

On the right the British immediately falter and the lead company is pushed back !

…but the Americans know they can’t hold the town so start to pull back

Forcing the rebels away from the barricade the way is open ?

British make better progress down the left , but still they are suffering poor morale (a number of early failed activation rolls !)

The attack moves towards the left

Finally the cannons start to have an impact and the rebels on the right pull back

Benedict Arnold supports his troops close to the church

by now the British have forced their way down the left knocking out several skirmish units

A view form above shows the position, but the Americans are still holding the church 

Much of the fighting is hand to hand where the British clear out buildings where the rebels are hiding

The fighting was intense but the British are struggling to capture the church

General Arnold chooses to escape the battlefield and fight another day rather than get captured

The American hero’s of the day ! Who held the church till the end

They are now surrounded but at the end of turn ten they are still holding on

A final shot, the rest of the rebels have escaped the town !

A very enjoyable battle, the British yet again hampered by some incredibly bad activation rolls early on things improved but it was too late to catch the Americans who gave some well directed fire then promptly moved off through the town and the British couldn’t catch them. Fun to play a different scenario we gave the victory to the Americans who did what they needed to do, the British had their chances but the Americans frustratingly passed their tests when they needed to. The British cannons also failed a number of activations ! Technically I think the Americans scored about 20 points the British 12 for the sectors captured. 

As always thanks for checking in….some more painting next and a massive LOTR battle

Matt